European Union: Issued EDPB AI Auditing project to evaluate GDPR compliance of AI systems

On 27 June 2024, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) announced the launch of the AI Auditing project, which aims to develop and pilot tools for evaluating the GDPR compliance of AI systems. The program includes a checklist for AI Auditing, a proposal for AI leaflets, and a proposal for Algo-scores, aiming to help all parties understand and assess data protection safeguards under the AI Act, particularly aiding DPAs in inspecting AI systems by defining an audit methodology and proposing transparency-enhancing tools. The proposed AI audit checklist focuses on AI impacts, ensuring compliance with laws and best practices. The audit process involves iterative interactions between auditors and developers, using templates and instructions to guide assessments and validate results. Furthermore, the proposed AI leaflets would provide essential information about AI systems, enhancing transparency, guiding proper use, and empowering users, while the proposed algo-score would assess AI systems on AI governance, model fairness and performance, and post-market monitoring and auditing, promoting best practices and compliance within the AI industry. The project is part of the Support Pool of Experts (SPE) Programme, which has been developed as part of the EDPB 2021-2023 Strategy, which aims to enhance Data Protection Authorities' capacity by providing access to a diverse pool of experts in legal and technical fields. In particular, the SPE coordinates approximately 10 projects per year, with experts selected from a continuously updated reserve list of candidates specialising in areas such as anonymisation, AI, digital forensics, cloud computing, and more.